J.T. Wilson's Reviews > Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?
Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? (All the Wrong Questions, #4)
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Our last visit to Stain'd on the Sea, with its drained sea, its seaweed forest and its dwindling population, and the climax of the series' various overarching mysteries. Who is Hangfire? What is the Bombinating Beast? What is the song Ellington Feint keeps playing through her music box?
Much as the series opened with a parody of 'The Maltese Falcon', it concludes with a version of 'Murder on the Orient Express'. Hostilities between the villainous Inhumane Society and the VFD gang have escalated throughout the series - from theft to kidnap to arson - so murder is the inevitable next step, and all of the gang - benevolent, malevolent and ineffectual - are present and correct. Who committed the murder? How did they flee the scene of the crime? Why are the police so reluctant to investigate?
While Snicket's climactic twist is perhaps less clever than he thinks it is - I had my suspicions towards the end of the third book and was in no doubt by the time it finally happened - he does nonetheless lead towards an exciting finale, even as you start to feel increasingly certain that the end will involve something terrible happening. The moral ambiguity of the series has been a strength throughout, but here, good people do awful things repeatedly in the name of their own self-interest and it's left unclear whether any of the decisions made are the right ones. Perhaps this shouldn't be a surprise when all the questions were wrong.
(When reviewing 'Shouldn't You Be in School?' I mentioned this one was clumsily-titled: subsequent Googling indicates that the title of the book, and the idea of asking four questions, comes from the Ma Nishtana, four questions asked at the start of Passover. There's no other explicit reference to the holiday in the series; although perhaps if I was looking I'd have found some. Another wrong question asked.)
Much as the series opened with a parody of 'The Maltese Falcon', it concludes with a version of 'Murder on the Orient Express'. Hostilities between the villainous Inhumane Society and the VFD gang have escalated throughout the series - from theft to kidnap to arson - so murder is the inevitable next step, and all of the gang - benevolent, malevolent and ineffectual - are present and correct. Who committed the murder? How did they flee the scene of the crime? Why are the police so reluctant to investigate?
While Snicket's climactic twist is perhaps less clever than he thinks it is - I had my suspicions towards the end of the third book and was in no doubt by the time it finally happened - he does nonetheless lead towards an exciting finale, even as you start to feel increasingly certain that the end will involve something terrible happening. The moral ambiguity of the series has been a strength throughout, but here, good people do awful things repeatedly in the name of their own self-interest and it's left unclear whether any of the decisions made are the right ones. Perhaps this shouldn't be a surprise when all the questions were wrong.
(When reviewing 'Shouldn't You Be in School?' I mentioned this one was clumsily-titled: subsequent Googling indicates that the title of the book, and the idea of asking four questions, comes from the Ma Nishtana, four questions asked at the start of Passover. There's no other explicit reference to the holiday in the series; although perhaps if I was looking I'd have found some. Another wrong question asked.)
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Reading Progress
December 25, 2015
– Shelved
December 25, 2015
– Shelved as:
to-read
January 9, 2016
–
Started Reading
January 10, 2016
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Finished Reading